Several vaccination sites forced to shut on Monday as stock depletes again

Currently, the  State  has  a  stock  of  about  2.07 lakh  doses,  and  has  inoculated 1,41,50,249 persons as on Sunday. After  the  supply  from  the  Union  government picked up, the vaccination drive had  gathered  pace  in  the  last  week.

The  highest in a day so far was 4.32 lakh doses administered  on  Thursday.  “At  least  7-8  lakh  people  can  easily  be  vaccinated  a  day.  So  Chief  Minister  MK  Stalin  has  requested  increased  allocation  of  vaccines  to Tamil Nadu,” said Minister Subramanian.

Noting that the allocation for July was 71 lakh doses, he added that the State had the  capacity  to  administer  about  2  crore  doses a month.The  Minister  expressed  hope  that  the  supply  of  vaccines  would  get  regularised  from  July  1,  and  all  districts  would  get  regular  supply  as  soon  as  the  State  Vaccine Store receives supply.

Talking about the preparedness for the third  wave,  he  said  one  lakh  beds  and  9,000 MT medical oxygen were kept ready. Also,  7,000  beds  were  available  to  treat  mucormycosis. “There are 10,000 beds for children,  and  medication  for  them  are  in  stock,  as  children  are  expected  to  be  at  a  higher risk in the third wave,” Subramanian said.As  the  monsoon  season  has  arrived,  Health  officials  are  working  on  desilting  drains  and  initiating  cleaning  drives  to  prevent  any  outbreak  of  fever  cases  or  other mosquito-borne diseases, he added.

Corporation officials are unsure whether to conduct vaccination camps on Tuesday owing  to  the  lack  of  vaccine  doses.  “On  Monday, we sent around 5,000 doses to the centres. We do not have vaccines for Tuesday,” an official said.

However, the official said that the DPH has  assured  fresh  stock  from  the  central  government by Monday night.

“Even  if  the  stocks  reach  the  city  by  midnight,  we  can  distribute  them  to  the  centres and continue vaccination. However, this is unsure. Also, there would be no online registration for Tuesday as we are unsure  about  the  vaccination,”  the  official added